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Lebanese navy to soon receive 3 protector class boats from the US, eyes 3 more

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By AGNES HELOU -- BEIRUT — The Lebanese navy expects to receive three Protector-class patrol boats in coming days as part of US military aid, but the country’s naval commander said Beirut will need twice that number — plus larger patrol boats — to better secure its maritime borders. “This number is not sufficient to meet the needs of the navy to protect the country’s natural resources and sovereign rights in its economic waters,” Lebanese navy commander Adm. Haissam Dannaoui told Breaking Defense. “Since these boats have limited capabilities to navigate in difficult weather conditions, the navy has a plan to acquire large-sized patrol boats that can navigate in difficult weather conditions, have greater firepower, and can transport more equipment and items.” He told Breaking Defense that larger vessels are also more effective in search and rescue operations and protection of oil platforms.

But before any additional ships, Lebanon expects to accept the first three Protector-class vessels on Aug. 21, a source told Breaking Defense. Earlier in 2023, Lebanese navy teams were trained for operating these vessels in the US. A spokesperson for the US Embassy in Beirut declined to comment on the timing of the ship delivery. Another US State Department told Breaking Defense, “The United States is providing maintenance and training to support the transfer of protector class patrol boats to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). Crew training began earlier this year. The U.S. takes a total package approach to Foreign Military Sales to ensure customers are able to fully employ capabilities to meet their security requirements.” When asked about the possibility of increasing the number of vessels, the official said, “At this time we are focused on transferring and building up the LAF’s capacity to employ the protector class patrol boats.”

Libya asks Lebanon to release Gadhafi's detained son who is on hunger strike, officials say

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by Bassen Moure -- BEIRUT (AP) — Libya’s judicial authorities have formally asked Lebanon to release one of the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s sons, held without charges in Lebanon since 2015, because of his deteriorating health, officials said Monday. The health of Hannibal Gadhafi has been deteriorating since he went on hunger strike on June 3, to protest his detention without trial. He was taken to hospital at least twice since then and has been only drinking small amounts of water. According to two Lebanese judicial officials, Libya’s prosecutor general Al-Sediq al-Sour, sent a request earlier this month to his Lebanese counterpart, Ghassan Oueidat, regarding Hannibal Gadhafi. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The note stated that Lebanon’s cooperation in this matter could help reveal the truth regarding the fate of a prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric, Moussa al-Sadr, who went missing in Libya in 1978. It questioned why Gadhafi was being held and asked that he be either handed over to Libya or be allowed to return to Syria, where he had been living in exile with his Lebanese wife, Aline Skaf, and children until he was abducted and brought to Lebanon eight years ago.

The Lebanese prosecutor then referred the case to Zaher Hamadeh, the investigative judge in the missing cleric's case, who is studying the Libyan request and would respond in time. Hannibal Gadhafi has been detained in Lebanon since 2015 after he was abducted by Lebanese militants demanding information on the whereabouts of the cleric. Lebanese police later announced it had picked up Gadhafi from the city of Baalbek in northeastern Lebanon, where he was being held. He has since been held in a Beirut jail. The disappearance of al-Sadr in 1978 has been a long-standing sore point in Lebanon. The cleric’s family believes he may still be alive in a Libyan prison, though most Lebanese presume al-Sadr is dead. He would be 94 years old. He was the founder of the Amal group, Arabic for “hope,” and an acronym for the militia’s Arabic name, the Lebanese Resistance Brigades. The group later fought in Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war. Lebanon’s powerful Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads the group. Most of al-Sadr’s followers are convinced that Moammar Gadhafi ordered al-Sadr killed in a dispute over Libyan payments to Lebanese militias. Libya has maintained that the cleric and his two traveling companions left Tripoli in 1978 on a flight to Rome and suggested he was a victim of a power struggle among Shiites.

Lebanon's top Christian cleric Cardinal Patriarch Al Rai calls for state control over weapons

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by The National News -- The head of Lebanon's Maronite Church called for state control over weapons on Sunday, days after a deadly skirmish between residents of a Christian village and members of the heavily armed Hezbollah militia. A member of the Shiite group and a Christian resident were killed in a brief exchange of fire on Wednesday after a Hezbollah lorry carrying ammunition overturned while passing through the village of Kahaleh, near Beirut. In his sermon on Sunday, cleric Patriarch Bechara Al Rai called for "all parties" and other elements of the country "to unite under the banner of the state, especially regarding the use of weapons".

Lebanese Defence Minister's car hit by bullets in Beirut suburb Hezbollah, founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982, is the only Lebanese militia to continue bearing arms after the end of the country's 1975-1990 civil war. "It is impossible to live on one land with two states, two armies, two authorities and two sovereignties," Lebanon's National News Agency quoted the Patriarch as saying. Hezbollah, founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982, is the only Lebanese militia to retain its weapons after the end of the country's 1975-1990 civil war. Its arsenal has long been a point of conflict in Lebanon, where its opponents accuse the group of undermining the state. The shooting in Kahaleh, the deadliest confrontation between the Hezbollah and Lebanese who oppose it since clashes in Beirut two years ago, raised the fear of wider violence in a country already struggling with a crippling economic crisis and a political vacuum.

Cardinal Al Rai, who regularly speaks out about Lebanon's problems, also touched on the parliament's failure to elect a successor to former president Michel Aoun nearly 10 months after his term ended. "The failure to elect a president since last September is unjustified, seeing as he is the guarantor of state institutions' revival and the preserver of the coexistence formula," the Patriarch said. Under Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system, the presidency is held by a Christian, while the prime minister must be a Sunni and the Speaker of Parliament a Shiite.

Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki joins jury for Venice film fest

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by arabnews.com -- DUBAI: Lebanese filmmaker and actress Nadine Labaki has been announced as a jury member for the 80th Venice International Film Festival, to take place from Aug. 30 to Sept. 9. She will be joined by French Cesar-winning actor and producer Elsa Zylberstein, Mexican actor and Oscar nominee Yalitza Aparicio, British-Nigerian screenwriter Misan Sagay and renowned Italian director Stefano Savona.

According to Variety, Labaki and the team will assess the films’ artistic creativity, their relevance in the global political climate, their potential to challenge audience perspectives on the issues presented and their potential to inspire audiences to take action. Labaki will also be a jury member for the 48th Toronto International Film Festival, to take place from Sept. 7-17. She will serve on the TIFF Platform jury.

Cyprus is sending Syrian migrants back to Lebanon. The UN is concerned but Cypriots say it’s lawful

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BY MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS AND ABBY SEWELL NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The United Nations refugee agency said Friday it was “extremely concerned” over the return of more than 100 Syrian nationals from Cyprus to Lebanon without being screened to determine whether they need legal protection and who may be deported back to their war-wracked homeland. The UNHCR office in Cyprus said deportations and transfers between states “without legal and procedural safeguards for persons who may be in need of international protection” are against international and European law. Such transfers could result in people sent back to a country where “they may face the risk of persecution, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and other irreparable harm,” the agency told the Associated Press. The Cyprus government said such returns are being lawfully carried out in line with a bilateral agreement the island nation and neighboring Lebanon signed in 2004.

According to senior Interior Ministry official Loizos Hadjivasiliou, the agreement obligates Lebanon to prevent and stop illegal border crossings and illegal migration of individuals who depart from Lebanon. Hadjivasiliou told the Associated Press these individuals are returned to Lebanon, which is deemed safe and where they enjoy benefits afforded to the hundreds of thousands of refugees in the country. “Under these circumstances, we believe that they don’t face any danger and their choice to set sail toward a European Union member country is being made for clearly economic reasons.”

Lebanon bans ‘Barbie’ movie for ‘promoting homosexuality’

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by Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN -- Authorities in Lebanon moved to ban the “Barbie” movie from cinemas on Wednesday, saying it promotes homosexuality and violates the nation’s values. Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada banned the film from cinemas after delaying its release date to late August, saying it contradicts the “moral and religious values as well as the principles of Lebanon,” state-run media reported Wednesday. The minister said the movie also “promotes sexual deviance and transsexuality,” by Lebanese state-run media on Wednesday. “Sexual deviance” is a term commonly used in the Middle East to refer to homosexuals. The ban comes amid heightened anti-LGBTQ rhetoric by some politicians and government officials in Lebanon and the wider Middle East.

How Barbie made a surprising comeback Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Shiite Islamist Hezbollah movement, launched a tirade against homosexuals in late July during a speech marking Ashura, which commemorates the killing of the Hussain bin Ali, Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, in the 7th century. He referred to homosexuality as “sexual perversion” and identified same-sex relations as a “threat” to Lebanon. Days earlier, Nasrallah threatened the LGBTQ community in a video message, encouraging the use of derogatory terms and for them to be punished.

Two dead in clashes between Hezbollah and Christians from Kahale (qahale) after truck crash

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By Najia Houssari -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: At least two people were killed on Wednesday in clashes between armed Hezbollah fighters and Christian residents of Kahale, after a militia truck overturned on the road between Damascus and Beirut. Shots were fired after Hezbollah operatives who were escorting the vehicle surrounded the truck, which crashed on a downhill turn near Kahaleh, about 15km from the Lebanese capital. Security sources said one of the dead was a Hezbollah member and the other was villager Fadi Bejjani, 60. TV footage showed men in plainclothes firing rifles in the street. A third person was reportedly injured in the shootout, and bullets damaged nearby buildings.

Lebanese army troops were deployed around the lorry at nightfall while a crane was used to remove wooden crates from it. Witnesses said the boxes appeared to be ammunition crates, but there was no official confirmation. The truck was plain white in color with no military markings. Hezbollah later confirmed the truck belonged to them and one of their members had been killed while securing it. Church bells rang in the village to call people to gather. There were confrontations between villagers and the army as soldiers tried to prevent civilians from approaching the truck. The vehicle overturned at a notorious accident spot on the treacherous, winding road, which has many dangerous curves. Witnesses said the driver was injured when it overturned and fled the scene. A village spokesperson said they would not allow the vehicle to be moved, and urged “the Lebanese state to carry out its duties.” He added: “The army personnel who are present do nothing.”